Netflix Debuts Streaming Service

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Netflix Debuts Streaming Service

As many have been predicting for quite some time, Netflix has thrown its hat into the digital download ring with a new streaming movie on demand service. The company is offering some 1,000 films to current Netflix subscribers in a phased roll-out. The "Watch Now" streaming option will appear along side the familiar "Rent" button within applicable movie descriptions on the Netflix site, and all subscribers will have free access before the end of June.

This is a service for Netflix subscribers offered at no extra cost. If you're on the $18-per-month rental plan, you get 18 hours of streaming video per month. Subscribers to the $6 plan will get 6 hours per month, and so on.

A small browser applet (a one-time installation) will stream movies directly to a subscriber's browser.

The new "Watch Now" option will only work on Windows PCs.

Movies are streaming only. No download-to-burn, no download to watch later even though this is rental.

Movies can be paused, and you can jump to any point in the feature by clicking on a progress bar. Netflix says that the standard buffering wait time starts at 10 seconds.

Video quality is scaled based on each user's bandwidth. The minimum requirement is 1 megabit per second. Users with 3 megabits of download bandwidth can receive DVD-quality streams.

Netflix is seeding the service with 1,000 titles to start. The company currently rents over 70,000 DVD titles.

Big name content partners for the streaming service include NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., New Line and Lionsgate. Streaming video from IFC, BBC Worldwide, Palm Pictures and other independent-minded content houses will also be made available.